Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant

This was our first time trying Ethiopian food so we didn’t really know what to expect.
Our server was very helpful and attentive — he made sure our waters were always filled, made sure we had enough of the bread, and consistently checked on us, but not to the point it was annoying.
The environment was peaceful and pretty quiet. They use incense for the «coffee ceremony», so the whole place smells like incense which was pleasantly unique. We did not do the coffee ceremony ourselves, but another table did which was fun to see.
The food was good. We got the appetizers 1,2, & 3 which were 1– some farmer’s cheese dish which wasn’t a favorite — tastes kind of like cottage cheese put in a blender. But the sambusas (2 & 3) were delicious. The lentil one was my favorite. For the entrée, I think we made the mistake of using too much of the sourdough bread, which made it taste acidic. I suggest eating larger portions of the actual dish and smaller portions of the bread. We got the meat sampler (TA2 on the menu) which came with lamb, chicken, beef, spinach, corn, mushroom, and lentil samples. All were delicious. We also got a mango drink and it didn’t disappoint — it was very flavorful!
Overall, we had a great first experience.

This is where I go when I want to reward myself. The staff knows me by name, and I love this! I usually order the TA2 with all chicken. Ethiopian is my favorite food, and I love the warm comfort I feel when eating it. To me, this is the southern comfort style, while Major Restaurant on the far Westside is the less heavy, but equally delicious option. It is hard to pick a favorite, but I love them both for their uniqueness.

I’ve never had Ethiopian food before, and we were on the West side for an event and decided to give it a try.
I must say, I was impressed with our server, the food and the décor.
I honestly can’t say how the food compares to other Ethiopian food, having never had it, but I WILL say it all tasted good, was fresh and hot, and quite unique.
Our server was attentive without hovering, and the price was reasonable for what we received.
I can see this as being a really fun place to try with a group. We’ll be back.

We wanted to try something completely different for dinner, and Abyssinia did not disappoint!
The room is minimally decorated, with lots of big tables where large groups can gather and dine together. They use quite a bit of incense while eating, which for some may be a bit off-​putting. They were very conscious of this and asked if it was bothering us (we were the only ones there besides the staff and some regulars.)
We ordered the Taste of Abyssinia 1 Combination plate that includes Sega wett (lean beef with spices), Doro Alecha (chicken), Yebeg Alecha (chicken), Yellow beans, Tikel Gommen (cabbage and carrots), and Lentils. Dinner for two was $ 30.99, and also included fermented bread used to eat the food (no utensils, although they did ask if we wanted to use them, but we declined). My absolute favorite dish was the spiced lentils! I could’ve made an entire meal out of them and been completely happy!
It was a wonderful, unique dining experience that my husband and I enjoyed, and we wouldn’t hesitate to do it again!

I’m not an expert in this specific cuisine but it was what I expected based on other places I’ve been. We ordered the meal for two where we had a large selection of different items to choose from. Everything was good, nothing really stood out. I just kept going in a circle when choosing what I was going to try next.
I really enjoyed the coffee and the tradition they shared with us after the meal. I would highly recommend it. This place is casual but more on the quiet side. It’s a good spot to catch up with friends and to take your time and really enjoy the experience of this cuisine and culture.

Very interesting and tasty food. If you haven’t ever tried it I would def recommend this place and ask the servers for recommendations!

I really enjoy Ethiopian food and lucked out to have some locals take me here on a recent Indianapolis visit. The vibe of this place in true to Ethiopian restaurants: small & sparcely decorated, but with great service. We ordered the TA2 meat platter and they delivered on both flavor and quality. Doro Wett was some of the best I’ve had and the yellow beans were delicious. I will say the price is a little higher than I’m used to, and the platter for 2 could easily feed 3.
We finished with a coffee ceremony, and both the coffee and experience were spectacular! This is a great place for veteran Ethiopian food lovers and newbies, alike!

Absolutely love this place. Have been there once a month since I discovered it. The goat and lentil dishes are the best. The service is wonderful.

I love trying new types of food. This is a lovely little restaurant to visit for the experience but Ethiopian was a bust for me. We tried the sampler for 2 and I didn’t find anything to be particularly flavorful. Plus, I felt it was quite over priced. The injera bread was just too much for me (texture and taste). We had to request forks to make the rest of the food edible. I would recommend trying this place for a new experience. Just wasn’t for me.

Quite yummy, big portions, reasonable prices, sweet staff, nice décor, easy parking.
What more could you want? Other than silver ware maybe… Yes we had a few folks ask for it… I lived dangerously and got my hands dirty, burned them too on some hot dish, dove right in there, lost half my food on the way from plate to mouth, but hey it’s the experience that counts.
Having no idea what anything is I just ordered one of the combination plates and I likes most everything on there… now I just hope I can remember next time which one was my favorite and order a whole serving of that one, cause it was really delicious.
I really wish I could describe things in more detail for you but I would first have to know what it is that I ate, which I don’t. Let’s just say it was all very flavorful and obviously made with great care. The chef even came out to inquire what we thought about the dishes, which I thought was a nice touch.
Oh I did have the beef sambusa (I do know what that is) as an appetizer and it was awesome. Light flaky crust, hot as heck and obviously freshly deep fried, with a savory filing of ground beef with herbs and spices. Highly recommend.

All of the food I had was delicious That said– the texture of the sponge-​like bread, that is used to scoop everything, made me reach a point where I just couldn’t eat anymore. That’s no fault of Abyssinia, just a personal texture issue. The filled pastry appetizers were our favorites, try the lentil and the meat! For entrees we had the vegetarian combo (would recommend) and the serving for 1 was plenty for the two of us.

Three stars cause afterall this is ethnic dining. Recommended by an Ethiopian medical student of mine. I was extremely excited to find out that there is an Ethiopian restaurant in Indy.
Greeted well by the waiter, the place is clean and decorated fairly well. There is a corner with traditional seating with a centre table and low set chairs. The place was pretty empty probably for being a weekday.
I ordered the beef sambosa as an appetizer which was great and pretty similar to the Indian samosa. Except I was ticked off at the fact that one piece was for $ 2.5 which is kind of expensive. I ordered the platter TA2 which comes with a little bit of everything namely lentils, veggies, chicken and lamb. Served on a flat bread called injeri it looks quite exotic and appealing! But tasting everything you realize everything has a sour vinegari taste and what they say is spicy is not spicy at all for my taste. I would say for how much I was excited to try this place out I wasn’t half as impressed. Probably will only head back if there’s a group of friends excited about trying something ethnic.
Pricing is also one reason I was not happy. I think the food is way overpriced probably because it’s a small business and I understand. But as a customer you think of a hundred different ways you could have eaten with that money. I recommend it for the sake of experience.

I’d been craving good Ethiopian food, and stumbled upon this place a few months ago. The food is fantastic! I highly recommend trying the vegetarian combo (TA3) if you don’t know what to order. It’s a good blend of several dishes. The portions are quite large, so an order for two will likely be plenty for a party of 3 – 4.
One word of warning, they don’t generally provide silverware, so this place isn’t for those who are huge germ-​phobes, especially since most dishes are served family style. Each table has hand sanitizer, however.
I’ve also ordered take-​out several times, and service has been quick. Enjoy!

Everything is fantastic. Had the three tasting platters. Just ask which is the spicy dishes. Great for vegetarians. Coffee ceremony is cool, but the coffee is awesome.

I came here to eat after seeing it on WTHR as a Unilocal review. I came for dinner w a friend. The menu was slightly overwhelming but the staff was super helpful as this was my first try at Ethiopian food.
I had the Yemisir Sambusa that was honestly one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted!
Then I shared the TA2 which is a vegetarian combo. Every dish was great!
The bread that this is served with is great. It is sour and really goes great with every dish.
The staff is great at breaking down what every dish is and making sure you are enjoying your meal. This restaurant is a gem on 38^th street.
I cannot wait to try the lunch buffet!

Excellence in the 10 prepared dishes on vegetarian lunch buffet. The many dishes included a nice selection and blends of greens, corn, carrots, potato, cabbage, eggplant, lentils, green beans and rice. I especially liked the eggplant, the spicy lentils and the spicy potato with peppers. Not too spicy, just enough to satisfy my capsicum craving. Over rice or wrapped in authentic enjera, it makes a most satisfying mid-​day repast. Kale and spinach rounded out a filling healthful meal. Iced tea capped off a perfect experience. I do need a nap now.

Went here yesterday for lunch around 11:30 am just because I needed to use my Groupon. If you guys are not on Groupon and getting local restaurant deals get on it now! Its a good way to experience new restaurants and a fraction of the cost. My voucher was good for $ 20 dollars of food with no restrictions. It is really hard to decide what to eat here because its something my boyfriend and I are not at all familiar with. But the waiter recommend getting the meat platter (T2) because it had a little bit of everything, and trust me that platter was huge. It was the size of a XL pizza pan! Prior to our platter coming out, we had these amazing super hot flaky triangle ground beef appetizers. These were soooo good! I wish they didn’t come in 1 piece. It cost about $ 5.50 for two which is a bit pricey. The platter arrive shortly and the waiter let us know what each of the food was. There were about 4 vegetable dish and 3 meats. I have to admit i didn’t enjoy all the dishes, but most of the meat ones I did. Because we were using the roll up sour bread as edible utensils we were getting full super quick. We managed to finish all the meat dishes though. Overall the experience here is amazing, I would definitely come here again but I would probably take it to go. I think the food would taste so amazing with rice and me fueling off rice each day it is a must! It might not be for you but its really great to experience once in your lifetime.

I absolutely love Ethiopian, I’d eat it every day if I could. This place excels at quality food and kindness via the waitstaff, but unfortunately falls behind in regard to attentiveness. And this is coming from the MOST laid-​back, low maintenance person. I don’t need to be waited upon hand and foot by any means.
When I went with my group of friends, there was only one other table of eating, and it took a long time for everything in general. It wouldn’t have mattered if the restaurant wasn’t ice cold, but the combo of tensed up ice cube and hangry bitch isn’t good on the brain! I’m guessing they just had less staff that night or something. Understandable. That being said, I was in great company, the people working there were amazing when they finally showed up, and the food was wonderful. I got the Vegetarian Platter, which was so, so good and it’s also something I’d recommend to first time Ethiopian diners. Honey wine was better in theory, but you be the judge!
So long story short, dine here when you’ve got time to graze and enjoy someone’s company. It’s absolutely worth it. And maybe bring a jacket if you’re always cold like me. ;)

My husband and are so excited that we found this place! While living in Arlington, VA we tried Ethiopian for the first time and fell in love with it. We had a favorite restaurant we would go to often so when we moved here earlier this year we wanted to find a new favorite. We tried St Yared and that experience left us disappointed. Our experience here was a complete 180!
Service ³⁄₅
Service was as expected. Our waitress was friendly and got our order right. The restaurant wasn’t super busy but I had to flag her down a couple times because she just didn’t check on us very often, not a huge deal though. Our food didn’t take too long and it was hot when we go it.
Atmosphere/​Ambiance ³⁄₅
The restaurant feels very dated and not very warm. But it was clean and the seats were comfortable enough. They also have a bottle of hand sanitizer at each table which is nice. This is probably a strange thing to mention but they had an electronic sign at the back of the restaurant that blinked between the word «coffee» and the picture of a coffee mug in neon colors and that was fairly distracting actually. Next time I’ll try to remember to sit on the opposite side of the table, my husband isn’t bothered by things like that as much as I am!
Food ⁵⁄₅
Let’s be honest, we didn’t come here for the service or the atmosphere, we came here for the food and the food was most definitely the star of the show! We got our usual entrees… my husband got the Kitfo and I got the beef Awaze Tibs (mild) and both were absolutely delicious! They tasted exactly the same as what we got at our favorite restaurant in Arlington. We are beyond excited and will absolutely be back!

This was my first time here, and I loved it! I’m a northsider, so this was slightly off the beaten path for me, but I thought it was well worth the drive. The staff is very friendly and the food was great (we had the vegetarian combo). As an Ethiopian food newbie, I was momentarily perplexed by the lack of silverware and the large pump bottles of hand sanitizer on the tables, but my friend explained that you use the injera — delicious sourdough sponge bread — to scoop up and eat your food. I’ll definitely be adding this to my regular restaurant rotation.